


Inherited Traits

by Million_Moments



Series: Harry verse [1]
Category: Death in Paradise
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-19
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 12:19:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/849494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Million_Moments/pseuds/Million_Moments
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She never thought Richard would be her biggest challenge as a mother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inherited Traits

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t often write established relationship stories, because people getting together is my favourite part. But this idea would not leave me alone.

If somebody had asked her whilst she was pregnant what she thought she’d find most challenging about being a mother, she probably would have answered the lack of sleep or the loss of alone time with her husband. She had no idea. The first major issue she faced was explaining to people that no, she and Richard had not named their son after that damn lizard. Richard had genuinely liked the name Harry for a boy, and his grandfather had been called Harold (she’d gotten the birth certificate to show people), the lizard had nothing to do with it. People didn’t seem willing to accept it though, perhaps because Harry-the-lizard had died during the first few months of her pregnancy, causing Richard a lot of misery. Sometimes she wasn’t 100% certain herself…

For a long time, Richard had been trying to ensure Harry did an awful lot of things that Richard hadn’t as a child. He’d insisted that Harry learn to swim in the ocean with her from quite a young age. He’d stay on the beach though, sitting in a deck chair he’d brought back from their honeymoon, having never really gotten over his dislike of the sea. He would go out in the boat with them sometimes though.

Several times he’d gotten Dwayne over to try and teach Harry how to climb trees. However nearly every time, before beginning to scale the tree or sometimes halfway up, Harry would discover some beetle or snail and carefully gather it up and bring it to his father. Richard would get down the book on Caribbean invertebrates (he’d bought it in the second month of Camille’s pregnancy and practically memorised it - overcome by a sudden fear he would let some venomous insect into the house) and they go through together looking at the pictures until they had identified it. Harry’s insect and arachnid collecting was not limited to tree climbing sessions, once she’d turned over a mug in the kitchen to find a terrifying looking (though luckily harmless) Spined _Micrathena_ spider that scuttled away. Harry had been inconsolable for twenty minutes as he had wanted to show his father when he got home from work.

Harry was due to start school this September, and for the last few months Richard had been practically harassing the poor boy into doing things he really wasn’t interested in. When Harry would ask his father to read him a book, Richard would insist they go kick a ball about on the beach. Of course that normally ended with one of her two boys getting sand in their eye and whinging – Richard way more than Harry. If Harry wanted to build a pirate ship using Lego, Richard suggested they build sand castles, or go to the playground or anything that wasn’t the two of them on their own indoors. One time they comprised and built a castle out of Lego on the sand, which Camille found truly endearing. She’d also noticed the way he was analysing all of Harry’s interactions with other children at play group.

She couldn’t take it anymore, she was 90% sure she knew what was going on and it was breaking her heart. She’d asked her mother to come and take Harry at lunch time so she could finally talk to Richard. As they left, Harry was excitedly telling his grandmother about how fossils are made. His Grandfather in the UK had carefully wrapped and sent a trilobite he’d discovered on holiday, and Harry had been delighted, asking about 100 questions a minute and finally getting a lecture on fossilization from Richard that soothed his curiosity. Richard watched the two of them walk off down the beach, his face full of concern.

“Sit!” She told him sharply. He jumped a little at the demand, probably having been lost in his thoughts.

“What have I done?” he asked, looking a little pathetic.

She sat down opposite him and looked him square in the face, “Why are you trying to turn our son into somebody he isn’t?”

“I’m not!” He protested weakly. “Boys like going to the park and climbing trees, don’t they? I just want to make sure he has a chance to do these things.”

It was an argument that wasn’t going to fool her, and he knew it, but she still pointed out the obvious, “Yes, but you are also preventing Harry from doing stuff he wants to do. Why?”

He didn’t answer for a long time, just stared at the table, as silent and awkward as he had been back at the very start of their relationship. He really had gotten better at expressing his emotions, probably all the positive reinforcement from her never rejecting him when he did, but this was something he wasn’t comfortable admitting.

“Richard, please tell me.”

He finally looked her in the eye, face a mask of anguish, and said, “He’s too much like me!”

“He’s your son! How can he be too much like you?” she asked gently.

“For God’s sake Camille, he’s four years old and he uses adjectives like ostentatious, scandalous and prosperous! He’d rather identify plants and beetles and read books than climb trees or play on the beach. Most kids his age haven’t even learnt to read yet because they are all busy playing outside!” Richard looked defeated, convinced he was responsible for all these traits and thus somehow for ‘ruining’ their son. He really was breaking her heart.

“You know, you’re so forceful, so, so bright and lively I was sure any child we had would take after you. When you first mentioned having kids I spent a week in a constant state of anxiety, convinced I’d mess them up, and then I looked at you and thought you were good enough to balance me out.”

She managed to control herself for all of 15 seconds, before she burst into noisy, messy tears and started to toss various items from the fruit bowl at him, “How could you say such things! He’s your son, he _loves_ you and of course he wants to be like you!”

“Ok! Ok!” He said loudly, batting away an orange before leaning across the table and grabbing both her hands before she did any more damage. “Okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She felt a little ridiculous, her display of emotion may have been genuine but she knew him, it would not convince him he was wrong. Instead he’d just not bring it up again, try to hide his worries and fears from her. He hated causing her pain. She needed to use logic if she was going to win this.

“You don’t have to worry about him Richard. Just because he wants to stay in with you sometimes and read a book doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with him. I mean, he plays well with Timothy and Rosie, doesn’t he?”

Richard acknowledged her with a half shrug/half nod.

“Last week when I took him to play group he walked up to Commissioners Patterson’s granddaughter Aurora and asked her to marry him!”

He smirked at the table, then actually looked her in the eye, “Did she say yes?”

“She told him that he had to buy her dinner first. He spent the rest of the afternoon asking me to get him reservations at La Kaz. Then he found a quarter on the beach and forgot all about it because he was busy hunting for pirate treasure.”

“What a heart breaker,” Richard muttered, smiling.

“Stand up,” she told him firmly.

He shot her a look, “Sit down, stand up, you going to ask me to roll over next?” He grumbled, but he did as he was told. She came to stand in front of him, took both his hands in hers and made sure he looked her in the eye.

“I love you too, and I _want_ him to be like you. I always wanted our child to be like you. He’s so smart, and he’s curious and really witty and he gets that from you. It makes me love you more.”

He glanced back down to the floor, she’d made him uncomfortable, but then he looked back up, mock stern, and told her “You’re being sentimental again.” Before she could protest, he leaned in and kissed her soundly. She responded eagerly, soon left a little breathless.

“Are you trying to distract me with sex?” she managed to ask, when he finally broke off for air.

He pulled her into an embrace and spoke into her neck, which is where he buried his nose, “I just…I’m not sure what to say…”

He returned to kissing her, and she wound her arms around his neck and gave into the moment. Eventually she whispered in his ear, “When was the last time we got to make love in the day?”

“Um,” He actually looked nervous, like they hadn’t done this before. “Sometime before Harry was born…”

“Well we have a good few hours, so let’s put that right…”

She walked away, but he didn’t follow immediately so she turned back, “Come on!”

He smiled, “That’s the third command…”

She returned his smile with her own grin, “I imagine they’ll be a fair bit of rolling over in your future, too.”


End file.
